Apologies for the delay in this week's Great British Menu 2016 blog! Here's a run down of the Central heat from start to finish...
This week saw the turn of the Central chefs Daniel Smith (chef patron at The Ingham Swan, Norfolk), Danny Gill (previously head chef at Midsummer House, Cambridge) and Andrew Scott (executive chef at Restaurant 56 at Sudbury House, Oxfordshire). Judging the contestants was veteran of the competition, Angela Hartnett, making her sixth appearance on the show. Angela joked at the beginning that she would be "much nicer than Gordon"!
Andrew’s starter was a tribute to two men, David and Robin who both have an MBE for their work at a food bank in Andrew's region. ‘Living on the Breadline’ would feature cheap ingredients but use sophisticated techniques and flavours in an attempt to elevate them.
The main element of the dish was a ‘pimped’ celeriac soup – made using an old recipe with egg white and salt. Andrew also served parsley dumplings but took the suet out in an attempt to give them a lighter consistency. He brushed these with an oxtail sauce. First onto the plate was shredded salt-baked celeriac and Granny Smith apples in a little mould, topped with layered oxtail and his dumplings. Andrew garnished his plate with celeriac crisps and micro parsley and served his soup in tin cans on miniature shelves, resembling the food bank.
While Angela liked the story behind the dish, she said the dumplings could have been lighter. She liked the flavours of the oxtail, apple and celeriac but said that the soup was too heavy and the crisps had gone soggy.
Daniel Smith’s menu, he told us, would be inspired by the criteria for the Queen’s Honors list. To start, ‘Making a Difference’ – a tribute to Theresa Dent CBE of the Game and Conservation Trust. Daniel is an advocate of local produce so he was using a Norfolk partridge in his starter. He poached the breast in a water bath and used the bones to make a consommé. He also made some pork crackling. Partial to ‘unfussy cooking’, he cooked some foraged girolles and an apple and ginger puree to accompany the partridge, as well as some shallot rings, apple matchsticks and a garnish of watercress and parsley crumb. Daniel served his consommé in shotgun cartridges and his plate in a medal box.
Judge Angela thought that his presentation was original and called the consommé delicious, but felt let down by the flavours and textures of the dish. She said it could do with more apple puree and more crispy pork.
Danny Gill was cooking a reinvention of coronation chicken (seen before on the show this series!) but featuring some rather interesting flavours including mango ravioli. He filled the ravioli with “f*ckloads” of a chicken, coriander and scallop stuffing. Also on the plate were a confit chicken leg with coronation dressing, crispy chicken skin and seared scallops. Some pickled jasmine raisins, curried shallot rings and spiced mango puree were a real twist on the classic dish. Final accompaniments were puffed wild rice, edible flowers and raw scallop tartare.
Angela didn’t think that each complex component in Danny’s starter came together. She said that the ravioli was nice but she said there could have been more spice and more coronation chicken.
Scores for the first course were seven a piece to Danny and Daniel and six to Andrew but the judge added: “you can all do a lot better than you did today” …
Angela said that she wanted to give some tens for the Fish course after being a bit unimpressed by the courses the day before.
Danny was cooking another complex reinvention, based on fond memories of the classic combination – salmon, cucumber and cream cheese. He made an oak smoked salmon mousse and crumb and cooked salmon fillets sous vide to make rillettes. He pickled some of the cucumber and made a consommé with the other bit by blending it, extracting the juice, spinning it and evaporating it. He also pickled some cucumber and apple and set himself the challenge of making aerated cream cheese before freezing it in liquid nitrogen.
Danny’s presentation was as complex as his dish – with the rillettes, mousse, pickled apple and cucumber, brioche disks in a bowl. Then sat on top of the bowl was the second part of the dish, with caviar, edible cucumber flowers, pickles, more brioche, salmon crumb, dill oil and his aerated cream cheese. The consommé was served in jugs on the side but when poured onto the dish, it fell through holes into the bowl underneath.
Whilst theatrical, the other chefs pointed out that this technique meant that Danny’s brioche got rather wet. Angela felt that there may have been too many elements to the dish but she loved the lightness and texture of his mousse and called the edible flowers ‘sublime’.
The pressure was on for Andrew as he was in third place and hoped to catch up with his fish course ‘Crabbing the Headlines’. He was serving – wait for it – coronation crab! The title, a play on words because of how many people watched the Queen’s coronation. Unlike Danny, Andrew opted to keep the more traditional apricot in his dish, making a gel. He had a bit of difficulty making brown crab biscuits on top of which he served ‘crab panna cotta’ - pickled white meat dressed with a curry and blended almond emulsion. Apricot segments and raisins were next onto the plate, then his gel and then he steeped it in apple juice and ginger wine. Finally, a garnish of celery and coriander cress and the course was served inside a film reel tin.
Angela called the presentation “clever and original” and she liked the texture of the ‘panna cotta’. She added however that the white crab meat had been overpowered by the almond puree and the biscuits had gone soggy.
Daniel’s fish course ‘Above and Beyond’ was dedicated to the volunteers who help man the Caister lifeboat. They were presented with a voluntary award from the Queen in 2012. He lightly poached Norfolk lobster, making a bisque from its head and serving the tail meat. He also decided to make a potato ‘risotto’. Highlighting the seafood, he brushed the tails with a garlic and parsley butter. Other complimentary flavours were served in the form of a lemon puree, a cheese ‘custard’ dressing and samphire.
The other chefs found a bit of shell in their course! Angela however said that the lobster was cooked beautifully and loved all of the different liquid accompaniments to it. She advised him to ditch the lemon puree in favour of some zest instead and to work on the presentation, as it felt a bit ‘crammed’.
Angela awarded Daniel an eight, Danny a very high score of nine and Andrew another lower score of seven. She said that all three chefs had “elevated their game” this time!
Danny Gill was now on a two-point lead as the Central contestants went into their Main courses.
Andrew Scott was pulling out all the stops in an attempt to catch up, with his venison dish, ‘Ma’am’s Balmoral Birthday Venison’. This year saw the Queen celebrate her ninetieth birthday, so Andrew wanted to serve a few of her rumoured favourites in a ‘forest floor’ themed course.
He trimmed and minced some of the game to make a ‘ragout’ and roasted the loin. He also made thinly-cut game chips with a pine salt seasoning and served these in a delicate china cup. Andrew cooked hispi cabbage in a water bath and finished it by pan frying it in juniper and bacon butter for an intense flavour. He froze blackberries in liquid nitrogen, a more modern cooking technique. A spiced bread sauce, girolle mushrooms and wood sorrel were last onto the plate and his venison sauce was served in a tartan hip flask on the side. Andrew also made a gin and Dubonnet cocktail and offered Angela and the other chefs engraved ninetieth knives for the course.
Angela liked the flavour of the cabbage with the bacon coming through. She said that the venison was nicely cooked and she loved the chips. While it was clear that Andrew had really thought about brief, she wasn’t sure about the ragout and said it was a lot of meat on the dish. Her and the other chefs also agreed that the bread sauce was too spicy.
Danny was also cooking venison for his main course, ‘Fallow the Dream’. He was paying tribute to his father, who was a chef in the RAF for twenty-five years and cooked for troops and at royal banquets.
A more traditional dish with ‘no bells or whistles’, Danny made a venison wellington with British ceps and truffles for a duxelle. He also blended caramelised celeriac with cream, chicken stock and brown butter to make a puree, and combined British blush pears and pine liquor to make a second puree.
Danny served his wellington on his mentor and GBM veteran, Daniel Clifford’s plates, with raw and sautéed ceps, compressed pears, black truffle, wood sorrel and the two purees. These went down well with judge Angela Hartnett and she said that
Angela criticised Danny’s main for not being more obvious about his link to the brief. Because of this, Danny attached a memo and a picture of his Dad, who was a chef in the RAF and whom he had dedicated the dish too. Oliver loved the story and Danny’s modern take on venison wellington. Prue said that the celeriac puree was “one of the best she’d ever tasted”. 
